“It doesn’t matter if it’s 12, or 10, or 8, or 6.” - CEO Mike Flewitt
Speculation is strife of a new mainstream powertrain from McLaren, after a Car & Driver interview with CEO Mike Flewitt revealed the brand’s willingness to adapt. The current McLaren lineup is powered by what is essentially the same V8 engine in various tunes, but the CEO intimated that this may not always be the case.
“For us, it’s all about the attributes. If we can get the performance, then it doesn’t matter if it’s 12, or 10, or 8, or 6. We’re all enthusiasts, we’d love a manual-shifting V12, but that’s 20-years out of date. So we’re not wedded to cylinder count, but we are wedded very much to performance and excitement,” said Flewitt.
Flewitt’s comments, paired with the immense success of the P1 hybrid hypercar, and McLaren’s continued commitment to electrification, has led observers to believe that it’s only a matter of time that its Super Series range of vehicles will receive a hybrid powertrain. And while it would be easy to simply pair an electric drivetrain to the existing engines, this would then push weight past an acceptable level, straining at the McLaren ethos of lightness.
Of course, this is all at a speculative stage, with the current Sport Series range (the 540C and 570S) only just two years old now. If any changes are to be made, it’ll likely coincide with the completion of McLaren’s new production facility in Sheffield, UK, which is expected to come around 2020.
What isn’t entirely speculative is the upcoming BP23 three-seat super-GT car, that will effectively succeed the legendary McLaren F1 three-seat hypercar of the 90s. Flewitt intimated that the impending new hypercar will see a significant power jump over the 674kW offered by the P1, with a 1,000hp (745kW) number being thrown about, which ought to give the Bugatti Chiron some sleepless nights.
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